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By Easwaran Rutnam-Monday, March 23, 2015
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has noted that he will release the investigations report on Sri Lanka by September, even if there is a fresh push to postpone it again.
Responding to a question posed by an NGO at a closed door meeting on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said that the report is likely to be released two weeks ahead of the September session of the UN Human Rights Council.
S.V. Kirupaharan, General Secretary of the Tamil Centre for Human Rights asked the High Commissioner if the report will be postponed for a second time in the event a majority of the Council members back the move.
Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein however had said that he can release the report even today but will hold it till September.
Sri Lanka’s bid to postpone publication of the report into alleged war crimes had won the backing of al-Hussein last month.
The government had asked for a delay of several months to give it time to establish a new judicial mechanism to deal with the allegations of war crimes committed during the country’s civil war.
In a letter to the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which set up the investigation in March last year, Zeid recommended delaying publication from this month until the council’s 30th session, which is due to take place in September. Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein had said his request was based on the changing context in Sri Lanka, and the signals of broad cooperation he had received from the Government, as well as the possibility that new information will become available for the report.
